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Street Prophets Friday: One for the Birds [1]
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Date: 2023-03-10
The mild winter months are drawing to a close. We've been getting a fair amount of rain this week, but last weekend there were still a few flurries failing to coat the ground. I've been taking advantage of the weather to prune some fruit trees in the yard. There were a few others out in the yard enjoying the mild weather. Saturday morning, I got up and parked myself in front of my mighty laptop to read through the comments that had accumulated in one of my diaries that I’d posted the evening before. I opened the curtain and gazed out the window next to me.
A Blue Tit and its mate seem to have already claimed the house in the old apple tree just a few feet from where I sat.
I thought this Eurasian Siskin might also be interested in the property.
This Eurasian Bullfinch kept hopping back and forth from this vantage point in a young apple tree ...
… down to where his mate was perched on a feeder I'd made a few years ago.
A Common Chaffinch visited our other feeder, a rather wonky little coconut shell filled with sunflower seeds.
I can't remember ever seeing either the Siskin or the Bullfinch in our yard before although we're certainly well within their normal territories. Maybe I’m just paying better attention. Not that it isn't fun to notice something new, but it's almost as if I was hoping global warming will bring a bunch of flamingos to the Czech Republic.
Anyway, these are practically all the pictures I took this week. I suspect next week will bring more.
The big news over here otherwise is that the Czechs have inaugurated a new president. I happened to be out and about yesterday and glimpsed the 250 motorcycle parade that went through Prague in honor of Petr Pavel. When I dropped off some vegetable soup to Fabulous Mother-In-Law, she was watching live coverage of the inauguration— or rather, the hours of interviews set up outside the castle gates and in the castle courtyards that took place before the inauguration itself. I watched with her for about an hour and headed home, getting in just in time for President Pavel's speech from a balcony overlooking the third courtyard of Prague Castle. From my perspective, he seems genuine and friendly, apparently lacking in narcissism — certainly not a thunderous orator, but it'll be nice to have him around for awhile. What I'm saying is that, so far, he seems sane.
I cooked dinner (barbeque pork, oven roasted potato wedges and sweet corn) and the inauguration was still going on. By the time the concert in Saint Vitus Cathedral had wrapped up it was time to go out for a walk with Mrs the Werelynx and a couple friends. We headed down into the deep valley behind our apartment complex and eventually ended up at the little brewery for which I occasionally do a bit of illustration and design work. Had to try the new beer they had on tap.
Generál, a beer made in honor of General Petr Pavel becoming the President of the Czech Republic
Also took a couple bottles of it home. I know it would have been better if Pavel had only been a colonel in the Czech Army— then I could've included him with the birds, but I didn't want to leave him out of this diary because, well, it’s kind of momentous the way things are changing. Sure, there’s still a troublesome element of creeping far-right extremism in Czech politics. The presidential campaign, blissfully short, saw Pavel's main opponent dredging the cesspit to present a campaign that played on anti-immigrant fears, attempted to present General Pavel's military career as reason to fear he would drag the country into open war with Russia, and brazenly lied about Pavel's stated views and his past relationship to the Communist Party. It was a crass and ugly campaign— so again, good riddance to bad rubbish and long live President Pavel! I was heartened by the vote that soundly rejected a wretched, petulant creep. And I hope this good feeling about the new president manages to last the full five years.
Thanks for stopping by.
This is an open thread.
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